Everything listed under: pain

"When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” He asked.“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.Jesus wept.Then the Jews said, “See how He loved him!”John 11:33-36 (NIV)

One of the hardest truths of our reality is the presence of pain. In fact, so sure is the presence of pain in our loves that no one escapes it...not even God! And that fact, while it may not be enough to alleviate our pain, may at least comfort us in it for these three reasons:

1. GOD FEELS PAIN. "Jesus Wept." We learn He is not an absent cosmic dictator, living a perfect life in a perfect reality, unaware of or uncaring of our pain; but rather a God who is down in it; embroiled so deeply in the muck and the mire with us that it affects Him, He feels it, He is "human." He's is not simply an impersonal, ethereal force, or a some form of spiritual energy, which cannot feel or relate, but He is related through our experience of pain. He feels, and so therefore is touchable.

2. GOD FEELS OUR PAIN. "Jesus saw her weeping...He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled." It's not just that He feels pain, He feels our pain! He is touched by it! the things that hurt us hurt Him too. He joins us in our pain. It's not just ours to suffer through and wish it were different, but God hurts with us, hurts for us. He cares. It is our pain that moves Him to weeping!

3. GOD ACTS ON OUR PAIN. God doesn't just feel pain. God doesn't just feel our pain. It affects Him SO DEEPLY that He acts on it. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead! He sees the pain of Lazarus' family and He answers a prayer they haven't even spoken! Our pain affects God. And not just in that He feels it and sympathizes with it, but it moves Him enough to act. He feels it so strongly, He loves us so much, that our pain, changes reality.

In this reality, no one escapes pain, not even God. But in our pain we can be comforted to know that we are not alone. God feels pain too; even ours. He is hurt by what hurts us. And that our pain matters to Him; enough not just to catch His attention, which is something, but enough to act upon it, enough to even twist the boundaries of reality as we know it. All of which tells us that in our pain, God cares; and even more so, cares for us.